Being God’s Beloved

Isaiah 42: 1-9 & Matthew 3: 13-17

Roger Lynn

January 28, 2018

(click here for the audio of this sermon)

As people of faith, how do we define ourselves? Where do we look to find meaning and purpose for our living? Who are we? Such questions can be answered in a wide variety of ways – some helpful, some not so helpful. But I believe that whatever else we might say about who we are,  it is most useful to begin with the foundation upon which everything else is built – by declaring in no uncertain terms that we are God’s beloved. We are loved and cherished by God. Our true home is the very heart of God’s love. We need to say it clearly. We need to say it often. We need to say it in as many different ways as we can think of so that it might actually begin to sink in. That’s why I chose to use a term like “God’s beloved.” It somehow carries a different weight than just saying “God loves you.” Hopefully it will slip past our “oh yeah, I’ve heard that before” filter and really find its way into our souls. We are God’s beloved!

It is also important to follow up this declaration with the recognition that it is true not because we are people of faith, but simply because we are alive. The faith part just allows us to recognize and acknowledge what is true for everyone. In the words of Peter from a sermon in the book of Acts, “God shows no partiality!”

Following Christ Into Love

Mark 1: 4-11

Roger C. Lynn

January 14, 2018

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

(click here for the video for the whole worship service - the sermon begins at 19:45)

The baptism of Jesus is a fairly familiar story, and when we think about it, we tend to use a theological filter called “Jesus is special.” We use theological filters all the time, and the particular filters we choose make a big difference in how we understand the story. In the case of Jesus’ baptism, using the “Jesus is special” filter will likely lead us to see everything in the story as being uniquely connected to Jesus’ “specialness.” Perhaps even exclusively connected. We start seeing Jesus’ life as not really having anything in common with our lives. And that’s the moment when we run the risk of missing something important. Before we know it, we’ve allowed our filtered thinking to separate us from the very one we claim to be trying to follow.

Following Stars

Isaiah 60: 1-6 & Matthew 2: 1-12

Roger Lynn

January 7, 2018

Epiphany

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

(click here for the video for the entire worship service - the sermon begins at 26:10)

It really is a wild ride – this business of living faithfully. When we take it seriously it can inspire us to do things we might never have imagined (like following stars) and it can lead us to places we might never dream of going (like Bethlehem).

I love the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke. They are filled with such rich and imaginative imagery. I think we do ourselves a disservice, however, when we read them as one-time only, happened-to-someone-else sort of stories. I saw a program on PBS a few years ago that spent an entire hour focusing on an in-depth analysis trying to figure out exactly who the wise men really were and where they came from. Through the whole program I kept thinking, “They are really missing the point here.” If they are merely exotic figures from some far-distant time and place, or even more likely just a literary creation of the Gospel writer, then there really isn’t much connection with our lives today. But what if we read the story as an invitation? What if we see it as an illustration of what might happen when we dare to keep our eyes and our hearts open to the presence of the Sacred as it appears in the most unexpected ways?